Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to each of our witnesses for appearing before us this morning. I appreciate the important position you each hold in the departments where you work.
Mr. Makichuk, you mentioned that you have a $2.6-million budget and 27 employees. I assume you're kept very busy, when I look at all of the statistics you've given us here.
I think you're probably also aware, as Ms. Brennan said, that one of the issues our committee has been dealing with is political interference. Of course, I guess that's one of the reasons why we're interested in hearing about ATIP requests, the responses, and how they're being dealt with.
We're told, through a Globe and Mail story, that Mr. Tognieri instructed a bureaucrat in your department to “unrelease” a report. I'm curious, I guess, when I listen to you talk about your job and what you're expected to do and what you do. It says that a bureaucrat had to make a mad dash to the department's mail room last July, as the report was on its way to the Canadian Press, and the Canadian Press had requested this particular report. This occurred despite the department's real estate branch having consented to the full release of the report. The Access to Information Office at Public Works--I'm assuming that would have been you as the director--had determined after extensive consultation that there was no legal basis to withhold any of the report. The director general at Public Works stated that the entire report should be released, and justice department lawyers agreed.
In some of the e-mails that Mr. Tognieri wrote he said, “What's the point of asking for my opinion if you're just going to release it!” So who would have asked for Mr. Tognieri's opinion about whether this should be released?